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The Number One Educational Resource for the Game Industry

Session Name: Achievements Considered Harmful?
Speaker(s): Chris Hecker
Company Name(s): definition six, inc.
Track / Format: Production

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Overview: Achievements, awards, and rewards are ubiquitous in games these days. They're simply part of the landscape of creating and playing games, and they are enthusiastically designed into the very core of most modern experiences. They are assumed to deepen the gameplay, make players enjoy our games more, purchase them more, encourage word of mouth marketing, and they are generally accepted by the industry as a big step forward in game design. Unfortunately, more than 50 years of psychology research seems to indicate achievements may be doing subtle but irreparable harm to players and their feelings about playing games. What is this heresy?

This lecture will review the existing research to question the unquestionable. Rotten fruit will be provided at the door for those who don't like their faith and assumptions challenged with data.

GDC 2010

Chris Hecker

definition six, inc.

free content

Production

Production